It’s been two weeks since my last post, and I’ve continued practicing and learning how to yoyo. My focus on the last two weeks was working on my technical skills. I practised the same tricks over and over again, and I’ve noticed that I’ve been becoming more consistent. Both my mentor and I are happy with how I’m progressing, and I’m going at a great pace. Without further introduction, let’s talk about some yoyo-ing.
Firstly, watch this video: Yoyo Progress
As you can see in the video, I’m getting to a point where the tricks are looking cool and fluid, but still nowhere near perfect. There’s one trick I want to highlight, and it’s called Double or Nothing. This is the trick where I wrap it around both my hands and land it on the string. This is considered an intermediate trick, and it serves as a base for how different tricks can progress. The cool part about yoyoing is that you can take it in almost any direction you want. It’s a skill, but it’s also an art. Tricks like Double or Nothing and Trapeze are great to learn because of their versatility. In a performance, you can transition from one trick to the next, and these base tricks allow you to understand how the yoyo moves. Overall, I feel I’m learning a lot and making steady progress. I know that I still need much more practice, but it’s all part of the plan.
I’ve met with my mentor once since my last post. I showed him my progress, and he critiqued my hand positions and techniques. Right now, there are a lot of tricks to remember and perfect, so he kept me working on the same ones (some of which are seen in the video). One thing that was brought up was my yoyo. I’ve had this yoyo for years now, and it’s getting old. I need a new string, a new bearing, and in general a new yoyo if I want to progress to harder tricks. I started looking into buying a new yoyo, and I think it will help out my entire project. This is a slight modification to my project, but Nolan and I both agree that if I want to improve I need a new yoyo.
The biggest obstacles and frustrations these past weeks can be seen in my video. At the end of the video, my string gets tangled and I repeatedly mess up my throws. This sadly is a common occurrence. Over time I’ll get better at keeping my string straight, and control comes with practice. This doesn’t stop it from being frustrating, because it takes time to fix, but none the less, I have to work through it. Buying a new yoyo will also help this because they are better designed and don’t have the same imperfections that come with age. Another obstacle is meeting with my mentor at the same time every weekend due to his schedule. This is an easy fix though. We just have to communicate earlier with each other.
Overall, I’m making steady progress. There are bumps along the road, but I know I can get over them. I can’t wait to keep yoyoing. The best part is that it relieves stress and I can tell my parents I’m doing homework.
Until next time…
How To Be Interesting:
As part of In-Depth we’re reading how to have a beautiful mind. This week there weren’t any questions, but only things to work on when meeting with our mentor. In summary, it was all about being interesting. I wanted to add some of my own thoughts around this idea. I feel like failure a lot of times is due to a lack of interest. If people aren’t interested or invested in something, failure doesn’t matter. What’s great about In-Depth is that we get to choose something we’re interested in. The topics are usually far from normal, and that’s what makes it special. From there you get to form a relationship with your mentor and they can help you dive in even further. My mentor does this for me, and part of what keeps our interactions interesting is that we’re both having fun. I thought this was important to mention, and that all of us should work to be as interesting as possible.
Research:
Tricks Website: https://yoyotricks.com/yoyo-tricks/unresponsive/
World Yoyo Champion: https://www.instagram.com/gentrystein/
Buying a New Yoyo: https://alternative.me/unresponsive-yoyos